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Monday, 31 January 2011

Let's start the week with a few new screen shots from our forth-coming DANDY adventure series, YORE!

Today you get your first glimpse as our main three cast members, Piggy, Elfin and Doombar! We're not going to tell you too much about the stories, because frankly, we want you to follow the weekly adventures in the Dandy! So, until the strip launches (not long now!) sit back, scroll down, and enjoy these environmentals! Oh, and don't forget to click the images to go LARGE and see all the little details!

Monday, 24 January 2011

Hey folks, not long now until our new series YORE! launches in the Dandy here in the UK, so I thought I'd give you another little peek at some artwork. This image is from the tenth episode of the story, so you won't be seeing this in the comic for a good few months yet! Click the image to go LARGE! More soon!

Tuesday, 18 January 2011

Here, for no other reason than that it's my favorite film of all time (by a loooooong way) is my version of that long-eared bumbler Roger Rabbit. Not too much of a leap from the original, since my line sensibilities are not dissimilar to that of the house style they used on the feature.

Monday, 17 January 2011

Hey folks! Just a little early heads up to say that it's not long until the Cardiff comics expo, and tickets are selling out fast! We'll be there sketching and signing Monkey Nuts and Malcolm Magic books, along with a limited supply of the giant El Sketchbook Lorenzo Deluxe Collection. More details about the show can be found HERE!

Friday, 14 January 2011

Half the joy of writing comic stories can be found in the conjuring of a tale worth telling. Creating an original, amusing and engaging adventure is an extremely pleasurable experience, be it 320 pages, 64 pages, 1 page or even just three panels long! It is challenging and tricky and, if done well, a delight to read.

The other joyful half (and personally, the more significant half) is in watching those stories take true shape as an artist transforms your words and breathes colourful life into your characters. Aside from my ridiculously talented and prolific brother, I have been extremely lucky to work closely with a number of genuinely phenomenal artists over the last few years. Zak Simmonds-Hurn, John McCrea, Jon Davis-Hunt,Kat Nicholson, Andres Ponce, Tanya Roberts and many more.

Today I am delighted to announce that a new comic strip will soon be making its debut alongside YORE. It is a ridiculous, comedy wrestle-fest, written by myself, illustrated by the mighty Warwick Johnson-Cadwell, and titled...

Warwick and I first met at a Bristol show a few years back when he humbly showed me his portfolio. Lorenzo and I see a LOT of work by upcoming amateur and professional artists but this was something else. Warwick was already an extremely successful illustrator but the guy just loved comics with all his heart and wanted to make some more - which was lucky really because so did I!

We now cannot wait to share the adventures of Huggles (the large fella) and Big Thumper (his blue-haired cohort) with you all.

So that makes TWO very good reasons why purchasing The Dandy every week should be a New Years resolution.

Monday, 10 January 2011

Way back in December 2010 (isn't it funny that even though we're only in January, last year seems like a lifetime ago...) Lorenzo and I joined forces with fellow creators, Dave Shelton, Neill Cameron and Kate Brown to bring a day of DFC fun to Banbury School in Oxford.

We co-hosted a comic workshop with Dave and during Q & A session at the end one plucky boy asked if I would draw something. Presuming he had misheard which Etherington is responsible for the incredible art that brings my tales to life, I asked if he meant Lorenzo. No, he replied. You.

Ah, I thought. Here we go again.

It was during the Monkey Nuts book tour that I first revealed that I cannot draw. Or rather, that I have the merest grasp of the skills needed to bring a comic to life. Children, it transpires, like to watch adults fail. So I was made to draw a dog. It didn't go well but it got a lot of laughs.

This time I was asked to draw Lorenzo. The portrait got a LOT of laughs but what I didn't realise was that some sneaky teacher had a camera. The lovely composition below, currently fielded on the Banbury School website, bares the fruits of my embarrassment for all to appreciate.

The pic was only posted at a small size so apologies for the quality. However, as this is likely to be the only time you get to see ME with a marker in my hand, I thought I should share. And yes, that is supposed to be my dear brother in all his quiffed and bespectacled glory. Sorry, bro.

If you would like to book us to host a Comic Creating Workshop at your Primary School, simply send a mail to thetheringtonbrothers@hotmail.co.uk. But whatever you do ... please don't ask me to draw!

Wednesday, 5 January 2011

Here's a little in-progress screen shot of me working on a panel from our new series YORE! which will be launching in the mighty Dandy as a weekly strip very sooooon ( more info HERE)! As usual, click the image to see it BIG!

Tuesday, 4 January 2011

After the rather lovely message Lorenzo posted on the 1st (you old charmer, you) I have decided to start 2011 with a message of pure capitalist greed. Ignoring the more selfless sentiments of peace and love and well-wishing to all men, I want to talk about presents.

Largely because I got some real corkers and they're worth sharing.

It was a very booky Christmas for me, which I love, and although there are non-comic highlights worth discussing (Brian Cox's 'Wonders of the Solar System' and Neil MacGregor's 'A History of the World in 100 Objects' chief among them) this is a blog about what we do best, and that is comic creating. So let's have a good look at four titles worth shouting about.

Anyone who enjoys adventure and has not heard the name Artemis Fowl is in for a treat as Eoin Colfer's second novel (in the ongoing chronicles of a young master criminal) receives the graphic novel treatment. The entire team that brought Fowl's first escapade to comic life return and deliver a superb visual interpretation of an already excellent story.

Lorenzo and I have both mentioned Blacksad before on this blog and for VERY good reason. It is quite simply one of the most beautiful fully-painted graphic novels we have ever seen. Thanks to international enthusiasm for the series, the American publisher Dark Horse has just released a stunning hardback collection gathering the first three anthropomorphic detective tales, including the previously French-language-only 'Red Soul'. Treat yourself, treat a friend. They will thank you for it.

What Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun achieved with Charley's War is nothing short of miraculous. Writing in the dying days of the truly-action-packed weekly children's comic world of the early 1980's, Pat's sprawling epic is widely regarded as a classic. Detailing the funny, tragic and often horrendous experiences of a young boy soldier, Charley Bourne, in the First World War, this comic book series showcases two creators at their peak. Pat's stories are sublimely delivered but the addition of Joe Colquhoun's masterful black and white artwork renders the whole experience on a new level. It's brutal, it's bloody, it's heart-breaking, it's breath-taking and it's available in lots of lovely books.

Lastly - one I purchased for myself! In a recent interview on the Star Wars site, I mentioned that one of my favourite all time writers was Archie Goodwin. Not only did he bring true horror to life in the gore and shock filled pages of Creepy comics, but he is the man responsible for originally taking Star Wars: A New Hope and transforming Lucas's sci-fi universe into a superb comic book series. He writes with a genuine sense of fun that so many comic book authors discard as soon as they become successful. Just before Christmas I managed to pick up a copy of the second superb 400-page collection of the original Marvel Comics Star Wars series for £1.99 in a sale!!! And almost every single story was written by Archie.

So there you go, four books to make you smile long into the New Year. They're certainly keeping me quiet!

More recommendations and news and comics and blurb and fun stuff soon.

Saturday, 1 January 2011

Okay, forgive me for being sentimental, but it's the start of a fresh new year!

I want to dedicate today's post to my Bro, who time and time again last year astounded me with his skills as a writer of stories that children (and adults!) really WANT to read. If I posted one image from all the projects he has worked on over the last twelve months (both with me and with other artists) this blog entry would be as long as our entire portfolio page!! To say I'm proud and amazed by my big brother is something of an understatement!

So here we are together, perched on the crumbly ledge of a new year. Already booked in for the next 12 months we have the launch of several new comic and book series, we have work to finish on exhisting series, and work not yet begun on projects he hasn't even dreamed up yet. We will be at book festivals, comic cons, exhibitions, signings, workshops, always together as two bros making the kind of stories we love, and bringing them to the kind of people who really get them, that's YOU guys!

I couldn't be prouder to be starting this year as the pictures to his words, and I can't wait to see where his stories will take us between now and next January 1st.

I love ya bro!

Lorenzo!

(a piccie from a project that only exists because of my bro's encouragement of my own wordy ramblings - thank you so much for the continued support buddy, I appreciate it sooooo much!)